#911 Bias

First of all, I hope you and those you care about are healthy and remain that way as we navigate our way through this pandemic.

The news about COVID-19 has been very interesting to me from a communications point of view. Every headline, TV lead, and PSA are about the virus. 

It is on everyone’s mind.

What I find so interesting is the confirmation bias I hear, including my own!

One person led off our conversation, telling me not to go out at all. That no one is safe; it’s no longer just about the elderly or people with underlying conditions, he said, because the news reported that among the victims yesterday, a seemingly healthy 45-year-old man succumbed to the virus. Another person told me if I keep my distance and use hand sanitizer, it’s fine to go out shopping or whatever because taking these small precautions will keep you from getting it and, besides, it’s like getting the flu. Almost everyone who has died was compromised already. 

Both cited reports they’d heard on the news, and there is truth in each statement, but each listened with their own bias. They listened for bits that would validate the way they already felt. (a healthy man died; only one healthy man died)

When a topic is emotionally evocative the prevalence of confirmation bias increases tremendously.  

People look for information that supports what they already think or would like to think. In fact, as in the example above, they even glean different meanings from the same information as in the ever-popular glass half full or half empty.

We need to be mindful of this as we listen to others and even as we listen to ourselves as we convince or are convinced about the various choices and decisions we make in life.

 If not for my family, I admit, I would have been too cavalier about COVID-19. I went into this with the bias that news media is akin to the boy who cried wolf, but this time the wolf was actually at the door.

Own Your Sales Gene…